House GOP: No new tax bills

House Republicans are now trying to wield the term to their political advantage, intentionally postponing passage of any tax bills until the party decides whether to reform the Tax Code. That includes repealing the tax on medical devices touted by Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) in a high-profile policy speech last week. In fact, the House hasn’t passed a single measure this Congress that either raises or cuts revenue.

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White House: We have spending problem

Cantor: Obama's only answer is tax increases

But the no-new-tax-bills strategy also has another effect: It will stop the Senate from raising revenue as part of any plan to replace the sequester.

Since all revenue bills need to originate in the House, the strategy will effectively halt Senate Democrats from raising revenue in a deal to blunt the sequester. If the Senate passes a bill to increase taxes on millionaires as part of a sequester replacement plan, for example, the House cannot take up the legislation.

This under-the-radar House GOP plan is the latest weapon in the sequester wars as the massive cuts will take effect early March with the billions of dollars in cuts to the Pentagon and government agencies. Despite the growing urgency, neither side appears any closer to compromise — Republicans are refusing to budge on raising revenue, while Senate Democrats and the White House are insisting on it.

“The bottom line is we want tax reform, but we want to plug those loopholes that the president talks about, to bring down tax rates because we believe that’s pro-growth and we can get [the] economy growing again, let people who earn the money keep more of it,” Cantor said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “The president’s not talking about that. He’s talking about raising more taxes to spend.”

“The fact is we’ve had plenty of spending cuts — $1.6 trillion in the Budget Control Act. What we need is growth,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said during an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”

“We have made the cut in terms of agriculture subsidies; there are tens of billions of cuts there,” she add. “That should be balanced for eliminating subsidies for Big Oil. It isn’t as much as spending problem as it is a priorities.”

Revenue isn’t the only divide. The GOP desire to replace the sequester by changing government entitlements like Medicare is a nonstarter with Democrats.

“Don’t you think … you ought to see if raising the [Medicare retirement] age really does save money?” Pelosi said Sunday. “Those people are not going to evaporate from the face of the Earth for two years. They’re going to have medical needs, and they’re going to have to be attended to.”

Republican leaders are bracing for more upheaval when the sequester hits. Defense hawks are expected to want to replace the cuts — a debate that is sure to take up much of the next two years.